I want the Pistol Packing Airline to start up. Flights to everywhere -- preferred caliber is .45. Swords and broad axes acceptable, but we suggest you have a dagger for close-in work.

The thing that nobody remembers is that 50 minutes after 9/11 started -- the passengers of Flight 93 proved that 9/11 will never happen again.

The TSA is a joke.

I would still rather go to Greece than guarantee I'm not going to be assaulted the way you were, Amy.

But this comment just made me remember I have a 16 year old daughter, with a bombshell body that is still pretty much untouched. It makes me sick to my stomach -- there's no way she's flying until this changes.

Do you know of any group that's fighting it? Or what we can do as individuals other than boycotting the airlines?

"I want the Pistol Packing Airline to start up."

I've been saying this for years. Do you want real security? Give anyone with a concealed carry permit 10% off their ticket price, if they take a weapon onto the plane. (Practical note: the States must mutually recognize CC permits, just like drivers licenses.)

There is absolutely no reason not to allow airlines to choose their own security model. They don't want hijacked - it's bad for business. This model is one that I would expect someone like Southwest to seriously consider.

We just took a family vacation a month ago, a couple weeks before my twin daughters turned two. There were direct flights from my hometown to our destination, and my little girls would have flown free with us.

But we drove 1,100 miles to get there specifically because I wouldn't put my little girls through screening. They completely trust their parents, and would hold our hands and smile as we hand them over to be violated. And I. Will. Not. Do. That. To. Them.

NB, there are many organizations around the country working to end TSA abuse. Since I can post only one link at a time, it's going to take a while to get to them. Here's the first:

http://www.travelunderground.org/index.php

http://wewontfly.com/

http://dontscan.us/

http://freedomtotravelusa.org/

Um. When you are pat-downed, it is by a member of the same sex, no? In a public area? How is this being violated?

As an American man, what should I do when my wife goes through the scanner, since any commotion would be counter-productive? Slug a $12-an-hour TSA agent?

The real violation is the trillion dollars a year we spend on the Department of Defense-VA-Homeland Security complex, and pension for everyone employed therein--and some get lifetime pensions and medical benefits, after just 20 years of employment.

Public pensions are the time bomb you should b worried about, not someone searching for bombs as you board.

One more time, BOTU gets it wrong.

They're not searching for bombs, BOTU. Patrick Smith has explained this at length in Ask The Pilot.

But you'd rather beat on your single drum: "Boo-hoo, the military!"

But I'm not surprised that you like the idea of a guy handling you more than a woman. That you admire the idea of being presumed guilty, that it's a pleasure for you to be strip-searched because you want to fly on an airplane - and you might have nail clippers secreted about your person.

You simply do not want to live in a free society. You want others to handle every risk, and those others will make every decision about you with your support.

Don't you?

How are you any different from a third-generation welfare brood mare, doing what the welfare people say to get a check?

Another ethical American who was just fine with it as long as it was happening to someone else. But other than that, yes, of course, it was wrong, she was assaulted, and I sympathize with her. Oh, and the reaction from her loving hubby is worth the price of admission:

It’s Not So Bad Until TSA Happens To You!
By Maribeth Kuzmeski

http://www.womenonbusiness.com/it’s-not-so-bad-until-tsa-happens-to-you/

Texas has tried - they were all set to make it illegal in TX to "aggressively pat down" passengers. The FAA threatened to ground all flights into and out of TX airports, so the state caved in.

OTOH, after the way the TSA treated two Iraq War veterans about a week *after* that decision, there were calls to the Governor to reinitiate the bill.

Frankly, the loss of DFW and Houston airports would so *seriously* inconvenience the airlines and flying public, that the public hue and cry might very well bring the TSA crashing down.

I am also in the "I won't fly group". A week from today, I'll have started a 2400 mile drive (then there will be the same back). My wife and I had arguments about this. She is much more confrontation than I am. She WANTED to go thru the checkpoints... while wearing a big strap-on dildo under her clothes for TSA to discover. As fun as that may have been, I figure that is putting our whole vacation (and the money already spent for it) at risk. Of course, that is what TSA wants you to think. I am surprised they haven't started restricting you to only going thru check points some minimal amount of time before your flight so as to put added pressure on you to comply or miss your flight.

I want to find the addresses of all the airlines so I can write to them and let them know that until this ends, I will not be a customer of theirs. I suggest everyone else do this as well. It is pretty obvious that Washington doesn't give a crap what we think, but maybe if their airlines start complaining it will make a difference. Ha! Who am I kidding? If we managed to make a dent in the airlines profits, they feds would just give them a bailout.

But, seriously, if you won't fly, let the airlines know!

Oh, look, some airline contact links:
http://consumerist.com/2007/07/9-airlines-ceo-email-addresses-and-other-useful-complaint-resolution-contact-info.html

Radwaste:

Well, for one I pay taxes, so all those TSA workers and other people in Defense and Homeland Security have lifetime economic and medical security.

Who is on welfare? Well, welfare mommas, and federal employees, that's who.

I have always been a taxpayer.

In fact, I have written blogged, written letters, and tried other civil means to reduce outlays to TSA and other wasteful parasitic federal agencies.

Throwing a hissyfit in the actual line leading to a commercial airline flight, while federal employees do their job as required by law--you go right ahead Radwaste. pack your heat and try to board. Come tell us the results.

And no, I don't get groped by anyone--I walk through the scanner. If a guy pats me down, so what? I played football, tried my hand at boxing, been in showers with God knows how many naked guys over the decades. Being around men does not set off alarm bells. You have a problem with getting patted down by men? Why?

This looks to be a better link to find the airline contacts as it is where the other link sends you:

http://onyoursi.de/wiki/category/airline/

I've already written to 8 of them (to every contact listed for each of them)!

"You have a problem with getting patted down by men? Why?"

Because I:

a) Have a higher security clearance than they do, and in fact higher than most of them will ever have;

b) Do not accept being presumed guilty for wanting to travel on an airplane.

You do.

You think it is fine, you accept by your actions, measures not even taken by the KGB.

Though I am somewhat heartened to read of activism on your part behind the scenes, that is not what you represent when you bend over for the agent anyway.

And be careful what you make up about my view of the situation. You're suggesting things I haven't as if I have.

Ah, modern America, where the girly-men like BOTU and Dale are the ones crying "submit to authority" while it seems to mainly be the women like Amy and Lisa with the stones to stand up and fight for what is right, for the Bill of Rights, and for our wives and daughters not to be abused and victimized by the state. What went wrong?

I would add tenthamendmentcenter.com to the list of links to visit / avenues to pursue.

To even ask the question "why should I have a problem with getting felt up and my rights violated" is the wrong way round. The onus is on those violating your rights, to demonstrate why they should be doing it.

Protecting one's daughters from pokey-fingered HS dropouts with early-onset diabetes is all well and good.... But the proud Daddy of your dreams is instead letting Princess be forced to ride across America in summer heat, rather than standing up to the government monsters. How impressed should we be?